São Paulo – The Food Price Index calculated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) ended 2014 with a 3.7% drop in comparison to 2013. According to the data released this Thursday (08) by the organization in Rome, it was the third year in a row with a price drop.
Of the five main food groups that have their prices followed by FAO, four ended 2014 real close to their lowest value in five years. They are grains, dairy, vegetable oils and sugar.
The lone exception was the meat group, which closed 2014 with a total of 199 points, that is, 8.1% above the value recorded in 2013 and a record for a one-year period.
This index calculates the costs variation and established points for them. The higher the score, the higher the food’s price. In 2014, the index recorded 202 points.
In December, the prices dropped 1.7% after FAO recorded stability in September, October and November. According to the organization’s release, the price index recorded 183.9 points, with a 0.4% increase over November, because of the wheat appreciation linked with the fear that Russia could restrict imports. The price of rice, however, went down.
The index that measures the values of vegetable oils closed December with 161 points, a 2.4% reduction over November. This drop occurred because of the low demand for palm oil for biofuel production.
To the FAO, there is a downward trend for the cost of the commodities that are used for the production of biofuel. That’s the case with palm oil and, specially, with sugar. “Ample supplies aside, the drop in oil prices obviously makes ethanol production less attractive”, said FAO’s senior economist, Abdolrez Abbassian in the release.
In December, the index for sugar prices went down 4.8% with 219 points because of the product’s wide availability in large producers, such as Brazil, and the lower demand. Dairy’s price dropped 2.3% in December over November and went to its lowest level since 2009 because Russia and China decreased imports.
Meat prices also dropped 1.9% in December over November. However, FAO noticed that with 204 points, the index almost reached its highest price for the month.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
